I read with great interest the Wall Street Journal article featured in Spanglishbaby’s Week in Links regarding parents who move to China so that their children can learn and improve their language abilities. Learning another language and experiencing another culture can be a great experience for anyone, and it is especially valuable for children who tend to have an advantage at second language acquisition.

The question that I was left with after reading the article was: Why Chinese? None of the parents featured in the article actually spoke the language themselves, but rather, Chinese was viewed as the desirable language to learn because of China’s rising global influence. The interest in learning Chinese seemed to be linked, at least in some part, with giving kids a competitive edge in the job market of the future.

This article made me re-examine my own motives for teaching my children Spanish. While like any parent I want to give my children skills that will be beneficial to them in the future, I want to be sure that my motivations for teaching my kids Spanish involved more than financial gain and career success. Fortunately, Roxana had interviewed me for the book she co-wrote with Ana, Bilingual is Better on this very topic back in February. It was interesting to reflect back on my answers after having read the Wall Street Journal Article. I liked seeing that there really are a lot of factors that have influenced my decision to raise bilingual children.

To begin with, unlike the parents featured in the article, I do speak the language that I want my children to learn. I have always loved learning languages, and it only seemed natural to pass on my skills to my children. Having learned my languages later in life, it was a real challenge for me to become truly fluent. I didn’t want my children to struggle the way I did when they could avoid this difficult language learning process by acquiring the language when they were young. From a neuroscience prospective young children have superior language learning abilities.*

My children and I also have a lot of fun speaking Spanish together, reading and playing with the other children in our Spanish playgroup. It has been a worthwhile endeavor to see how easily my kids can use their different languages and they truly seem to enjoy speaking with mami in Spanish, papi in German, and grandma in English.

Like the parents in the article, I am committed to raising my children to speak another language since there are a variety of cognitive benefits associated with bilingualism. Even more importantly, speaking other languages is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of other countries, peoples, and cultures. I feel that speaking another language will increase my children’s opportunities to know and interact with a variety of different people and provide them with the linguistic skills and cultural understanding to more fully participate in our local community and in our increasingly international society. When we travel to Spanish speaking countries, my children easily make friends and are able to participate in the games of the local children. It is wonderful to see them get to know people and play with children that they would not have had the chance to bond with if they had been monolingual.

My husband and I have always loved traveling and learning languages, and it has been fun sharing our interests and adventures with our own children. They seem to be enjoying the experience as well. It is easy to answer the question: Why Spanish? By teaching my children Spanish I am giving them the gift of another language that will help them in both their personal and career endeavors. I am also giving them the opportunity to get to know other peoples, countries and cultures, and hopefully I am giving them the chance to explore language and just have fun with it.

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Another wonderful article about bilingualism! I could have almost written it myself, although I also learned Spanish as an adult, I am only an intermediate level speaker and far from fluent.

I asked myself the exact same questions when I argued with my husband over sending our now 7-year old to a language immersion school. I was all for it – he against it. After a lot of soul searching, I learned a lot about myself and my goals as a parent. My husband is now seeing the benefits of our bright 2nd grader, having conversations in Spanish with a native like accent, and getting compliments from friends and family.

Regardless of one’s motivations behind teaching their kids Spanish – its all GOOD! Learning language is a wonderful and fascinating process to watch! Spanish is a useful, needed, and beautiful language! I am so proud of my decision to have my little blonde daughter learn it and happy to defend it to anybody who questions it!

I think it is imperative that we ask the question “Why do we teach our children Spanish”. While preparing our children for a prosperous future is a large part of parenting, sacrificing their childhood now – doesn’t have to be part of the gamble. As Susan’s article points out her children are already reaping the benefits of being bilingual. Their enjoyment of it will ensure that they will keep the skill into adulthood. While a trip to China could be a great adventure for some, doing it merely with the hopes that it will pay off later seems risky. I try to teach my daughters Spanish as a fun skill to enjoy now and hopefully sustain for the long run. While reading the Wall Street Journal article I kept thinking of a girl on my swim team as a child. Her parents got up early and sacrificed weekends and summers for her to compete in swimming. The girl worked hard and did well but the love of swimming was gone. And after her freshman year in high school on the swim team she quit; and her parents dreams of college scholarships were gone. I sincerely hope that people will read “Why do we teach our children Spanish” and incorporate fun into being bilingual. While learning a language will not be all fun lets hope it’s not all drudgery.

This is Something I desire to do with my children. Teaching Spanish not only at school but at Home is something I will do to open doors for my children as they become Bilengual. I often meet people that talk about how their parents are bilengual but didnt teach their kids the language and they wish they could have learn a new language. It is something I will do!

Susan O. Stephan is a credentialed Spanish Teacher in the state of California who earned her Master’s degree in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught in Spain, Japan and the United States. She teaches Spanish at a 7-12 public school in southern California, she also uses her teaching skills with her sons and in her Spanish speaking play groups.